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Best Hidden Mural in Plain Sight

Shrine at Sweatshop Dance

Courtesy of Robert Delaney

Although many Denver streets boast stunning murals, L.A. artist Shrine's wraparound treatment of Sweatshop's studio compound in the Arts District on Santa Fe is still a standout. It's a bold, orderly composition in red, black and yellow, adorned by dingbat-style symbols, tucked next to Metropolitan State University of Denver's Center for Visual Art. You can spot it from the street as you walk along Santa Fe Drive, but to appreciate the full effect, step into the plaza between the buildings. Then remember to drop in at the CVA, too.

instagram.com/shrineon

Best New Large-Scale Mural

Jeremy Burns

Jeremy Burns is a lenticular image genius, known for his clever "Larimer Boy" and "Larimer Girl," and his latest large-scale offering definitely looks different depending on where you stand. His canvas this time was the Pepsi Bottling Company off Brighton Boulevard, and the huge mural depicts a form mid-step, but the shading and different color blocks of red, yellow, blue and green make that form less obvious to detect. Burns, who has lived in RiNo for the past fifteen years, started the piece during Crush Walls 2018 but didn't finish until later in the fall. It was definitely worth the wait.

Best Upscale Street Art

The Maven Hotel and Dairy Block

Art provided a critical building block for the Dairy Block and its centerpiece, the Maven Hotel, which both display carefully curated collections. To see them, start in the Alley, the block's cushy secret passageway, where you can sip a drink from the bar as you look in awe at the art or even interact with it. Then cruise the Maven lobby, which displays work by fifteen Denver-centric artists, from Chris Bagley's dreamy video installation to Michael Dowling's history-focused ghost images in the elevators. Make a reservation and you'll find even more art — not only on the walls, but also in guest-room details, including mugs by Kaelin Tillery and glassware by Kevin Davis.

Best New Street Art

Chris Haven

Chris Haven's work often contains masterful repetition, impressive line work and bold characters: his "pyramid people." What distinguishes his new piece in Five Points, which he painted in July 2018, is its size and striking black-and-white aesthetic. The mural wraps around the building, covering each brick with careful shapes made from spray paint. Haven, who's originally from Westminster, uses his art as commentary for the environment around him. See what details (and pyramid people!) you can find in Haven's paint.

Readers' Choice: Jaime Molina and Pedro Barrios at Cerveceria Colorado

Best Wheat-Paste Artist With a Humanitarian Message

Frank Kwiatkowski

Frank Kwiatkowski's wheat-pastes are unmistakable: linocut-printed swirls of wobbly lines cross-cut with multiple colored stripes, which are then affixed to vacant surfaces with a water, sugar and flour concoction. But it's the content of his work that's so distinct: The artist creates vignettes of human interaction on the street, with commentary on environmentalism, class warfare, sobriety, homelessness, health care and gentrification. The world Kwiatkowski captures under a thin layer of wheat paste is undoubtedly inspired by his view of the city from the pedicab he drives — an occupation that makes the artist, like his art, a downtown fixture.

thekwiatkowskipress.com

Best Art Truck and Art Pop-Ups

Hey Hue

Creative powerhouse Deanne Gertner wanted to find a way to direct-market work by Denver's artist community while bypassing the middleman. The result was Hey Hue, which made its debut last summer in a truck parked on the fringe of the Underground Music Showcase in the Baker neighborhood. Since then, Gertner's continued to market pieces both in and out of the truck, always displaying a palette of work that represents a wide cross-section of emerging artists. The kicker? Each piece in Hey Hue's truck shows and pop-ups is priced at $200 or less, helping would-be collectors get in gear.

heyhueart.com

Best New Roadside Attraction

Art Cartopia Museum

Courtesy Rodney Wood
"Albert Canstein," made by inmates at the Trinidad Correctional Facility.

Talk about vroom service! Trinidad is now an officially designated Colorado Creative District, and art cars have helped put the town back on the map. It started when Trinidad denizen Rodney Wood and his friends began throwing the annual ArtoCade art-car parade on the main drag, then realized that for the event to really rev up, they needed to solve two problems: where to store the art-car collection and how to bring curious folks to Trinidad year-round. Their solution? The Art Cartopia Museum, a true roadside attraction right off I-25, which invites curious travelers to ogle the rolling art pieces and listen to a few wacky stories from the volunteer crew that runs the currently free attraction. Once you spot Joerilla, the gargantuan gorilla blow-up, you'll know where to go.

Best New Alternative Gallery

JuiceBox

After meeting at the New York Academy of Art, students Aaron Mulligan and Lucía Rodríguez fell in love and eventually settled in Mulligan's home town of Denver, working toward their dream of creating a different kind of art gallery that would encourage working outside the box while also serving as a classroom and community center for fellow artists. The result was JuiceBox, where the couple is creating a scene by hosting movie nights, color-theory classes, hands-on Family Fun Center evenings and art openings. A gentle mashup of DIY and solid gallery shows (it's strategically located next door to the similarly minded Dateline), JuiceBox is an under-the-radar next best thing.

Best Place to See Local Artists

Dateline Gallery

Courtesy Dateline Facebook page

Since 2014, Dateline has existed at the intersection of the underground art world and the formal gallery setting. Dateline co-founder Jeromie Dorrance is the conduit for DIY makers and experimenters who come through the space, and artist-curated shows have put works by the likes of Molly Bounds, Phil Bender, Julio Alejandro, Mark Fitzsimmons and more on the walls. That underground connection also allows Dateline to create context for Denver's larger art world, as when 2018's This Is It, a group show curated by Lorenzo Talcott, brought some of Denver's biggest graffiti players into the gallery while the Crush Walls street-art exhibition was taking place right outside. In clearly valuing homegrown art and artists, Dateline gives prominence to the non-critical space to which "local" art was once relegated.

Best New Cultural Event Space

The People's Building

Aaron Vega

The City of Aurora conceived of the People's Building as an essential component to the development of the Aurora Cultural Arts District, which is bringing shiny new life to Aurora's fading downtown along the East Colfax corridor. Under the curatorial direction of all-around creative and New York transplant Aaron Vega, the venue is connecting with people looking for fun, cheap, offbeat and unsnooty entertainment. The People's Building offers performance opportunities to all kinds of people: individual artists and musicians as well as independent dance, theater, comedy and music entities and organizations, making for a kaleidoscopic range of events for everyone, from Song Slams to yoga classes.

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